This invention relates to methods and apparatus for cooling and transferring flowable food products.
In conventional food processing, flowable food products are pumped through a pipeline from one vessel to another. A disadvantage of this transfer arrangement is that the pump tends to break the food product down and reduce its quality. The food product may be metered into trays travelling along a filling line using a metering device in the form of a piston and cylinder unit. The cylinder has to be refilled at intervals, and this apparatus may have a damaging effect on food products.
In the assignee's UK patent application no. 2 194 820A, is proposed the use of a holding tank into which the food product is drawn under the effect of vacuum, and from which it is expelled under air pressure. Also proposed is the use of a metering device in the form of a plastics tube which is repeatedly nipped and released between parallel straight jaws.
It is essential that the quantities of food product dispensed into the trays be precisely controlled. It has been found that the accuracy with which food products are dispensed with the apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned specification may be improved as described hereinafter by expelling flowable food product through a system of tubes arranged in the form of an inverted U, one limb of which extends downwards into the holding tank, and the other of which is associated with a flowmeter and provided with an outlet valve. It is also vital that the design of any equipment intended for use in the food processing industry should be such as to permit easy dismantling and cleaning.
Further it is desirable that provision be made for cooling the cooked food product in the holding tank so that it may be dispensed cold, preferably at a temperature of 4.degree. C. or less. Hitherto vacuum cooling techniques have been used but tend to break down the Product and extract the volatile constituents, so that additional quantities of spices must be added. Other cooling systems are known from UK patent specifications Nos. 415971, 689304, 728617, 815707, 815895, 856948, 933126 and 2072030.